Carrier takes helm of Idaho U.S. Fish and Wildlife office

Michael Carrier will take over as supervisor for the Idaho Fish and Wildlife Office, in the Pacific Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Carrier had been former Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s principal adviser on all natural resource and environment issues from 2004 to 2010 and knows these issues as both a state and federal insider.

He succeeds Brian T. Kelly, who retired from federal service on Dec. 31, and will step into the controversy surrounding the review of sage grouse for listing as an endangered species. In Oregon Carrier helped establish the Renewable Energy Opportunities and Eastern Oregon Landscape Conservation Partnership, aimed at addressing sage grouse habitat issues.

Mike Carrier, Supervisor for the Idaho Fish and Wildlife Office

Carrier is currently assistant regional director for fishery resources in the Pacific Region, a job that had him leading a network of 25 field stations with about 260 employees in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Hawaii.

Carrier will lead a staff of 60 employees in Boise, Chubbuck and Spokane, Wash.

Carrier has a master’s degree in natural resources from Ball State University and bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from Western Michigan University. He and his wife, Gayle, split their time between homes in Keizer, Ore., and Boise, where they have three children and four grandchildren.

Rocky Barker is the energy and environment reporter for the Idaho Statesman and has been writing about the West since 1985. He is the author of Scorched Earth How the Fires of Yellowstone Changed America and co-producer of the movie Firestorm: Last Stand at Yellowstone, which was inspired by the book and broadcast on A&E Network. He also co-authored the Flyfisher's Guide to Idaho and the Wingshooter's Guide to Idaho with Ken Retallic. He also was on the Statesman’s team that covered the Sen. Larry Craig sex scandal, which was one of three Pulitzer Prize finalists in breaking news in 2007. The National Wildlife Federation awarded him its Conservation Achievement Award.